why is my council tax so high?

[bamboobutton]

we moved into a rented house 2 months ago. the moron estate agent said we were tax band E.

just got our council tax bill and we are actually band F and the bill is £2100.

we live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields. there are no pavements, street lights, schools, libraries, shops, nothing i can think of that justifies such a huge amount of money. is having my bins collected and the police zooming through once in a blue moon worth £2100???(i know about the police as our house is on my sisters beat and she has admitted they prefer sitting in the station rather than arsing about on the back roads of norfolk).

my mum lives in a town 10mins away with schools, shops, library, firestation, police, street sweepers, streetlights ect, has a bigger house than us and pays £1500 council tax, band D.

it seems we are being penalised for renting an old farm house with a nice view.
can i do anything about changing the band, i feel so ripped off!

Council tax is based on the perceived value of the home in 1991. It has nothing to do with what amenities, etc. you have access to.

"it seems we are being penalised for renting an old farm house with a nice view.
can i do anything about changing the band, i feel so ripped off!"

Yes, you are paying for the privilege of living in an old farm house with a nice view. You can move house if you don't want to pay as much.

its to do with house value not amenities as has been mentioned - we pay the same as you, but are in band E so look on the bright side, at least you don't live here!

am band B and pay about same as your mum for band D, our house is only about 3 inches square too

On a more helpful note, you can look here to see a step by step guide to checking if your CT band is right, and what to do if it is wrong.

You're not just paying for your services, but those that your community as a whole uses from education and social services through to environmental health and highways police and fire. It's a collective society fing ain't it.

Oh and as an aside, it's the Government's lovely Valuation Office Agency that decides how much homes are worth. And did you know that if you extend your home while you live there the tax banding remains the same but, once it's sold on, the house is revalued. We found this out when the VOA sent us a letter when we first bought our house. I'd never heard of it before.

lol

i ahd no idea it was based on value of the house, i thought it was amenity based.

will go and grumble while i do some emergency housework, have had some people announce they are popping over and the house is a tip, arrrrgh!

Yep, I knew that Cakey - but did 7 years as a CTAX officer, so I should know that.

lol Riven

Yep it's based on value of house but worth checking that the band is right and might be worth complaining to agent

Seven years as a C/T officer Scary - you deserve a medal

I did 3 as a Community Charge Officer prior to that; then in 2000 I retrained as a secondary school RE teacher and taught until 2006 when I moved abroad to be with dh. Must need my head examining!

No point complaining about the banding if it wasn't challenged when the valuations first came out, unless there have been substantial changes for the worst to the property and it's environs. Also, you have to remember that challenging the banding can result in it going up as well as down.

Sorry you believed an estate agent?

That's your problem. Not council tax

Normally scaryteacher beats me to this, oh look there she is

Council Tax is based on the "hereditament" so it is the house and the LAND that it sits on. As you are in a farm house I assume it sits on a lovely big plot of land

This is also the reason bungalows seem to be higher on banding than you would think because it has a bigger footprint.

I only did Council Tax for 3 1/2 years. For Community Charge I was still at uni

I'm still confused as to why our bungalow is a higher tax band then the two huge houses down the road, one of which has an extension of bedrooms for a B&B and the other a studio annexe?!

@ClaraSais because council tax rates are based on what houses were worth in 1991 so if the other two houses didn't have these extensions etc back then your house was probably worth more back then.

Martin Lewis explains on his website how to get your banding amended you should have a look there and see if you can get it changed

Oh how interesting! Of course, both houses have extensions and annexes now. Makes sense !

I tried to challenge my council tax but failed. I couldn't understand why the house opposite has seven bedrooms and is a band lower than my house of four bedrooms. But... as pps have said, this valuation is based on 1991 and so this half a mansion used to be a 3-bedder. I believe that if a house changes hands after improvement then a higher valuation may apply.

Yes when I spoke to the valuation agency he did say Band can change if a house I see sold. Still seems really unfair though!